It would be understandable if Chad Franke had profoundly complicated feelings about his mother, the disgraced mommy vlogger Ruby Franke, who was sentenced this week to 30 years in prison for brutally abusing the two youngest of her six children in a “concentration-camp like setting.”
But the 18-year-old, the second of Franke’s six children, showed that his feelings may not be all that conflicted. Indeed, he appeared delighted after watching his 42-year-old mother weep in court at her sentencing in Utah Tuesday, according to reports. At the hearing, Chad also would have heard his mother apologize to him and his five siblings for plunging them into “a dark place.”
“I took from you all that was soft and safe and good,” Ruby Franke said in court, People reported. “I took from you your mother. How terrifying this must have been for you … You are so precious to me … I’m sorry.”
As Chad Franke left the hearing, he was seen with a large smile his face, the Daily Mail reported.
Three days before, Chad and his girlfriend posted a video on TikTok that showed him beaming with the caption, “My mom’s in prison.” The joking video also showed his girlfriend quipping, “You’d love my mom!” and then Chad doing some dance moves while sitting in a vehicle.
Ruby Franke’s sentencing ends what was revealed to be a years-long ordeal of alleged mental and physical abuse for Chad and his siblings, even as their mother gained millions of followers for documenting her strict parenting style on social media.
Ruby Franke and her estranged husband, Kevin, hosted a YouTube channel called “8 Passengers,” in which the Mormon couple documented the lives of her six children and chronicled their parenting strategies, all while presenting idealized social media images of a large, attractive and loving family.
Last August, Ruby Franke and her business partner, Mormon family therapist Jodi Hildebrandt, were arrested and charged with six counts of felony child abuse. The women were arrested after Ruby Franke’s youngest son, 12, escaped Hildebrandt’s house and approached a neighbor for help. The boy was found “emaciated and malnourished, with open wounds and duct tape around the extremities,” BuzzFeed News said. Police soon discovered Ruby Franke’s 9-year-old daughter — also malnourished — at Hildebrandt’s house.
In a written statement for RUBY Franke’s sentencing, Chief Deputy Washington County Attorney Ryan Shaum said that Franke and Hildebrandt subjected THE children to “some of the worst child abuse” he had seen in his nearly 30-year career as a prosecutor, the Daily Mail reported.
Shaum said that the women held the children in “a concentration-camp setting” in which they were regularly denied food, water, beds to sleep in, and virtually all forms of entertainment. He also said they were beaten and forced to do manual labor outdoors in the extreme summer heat without shoes or socks. Ruby Franke’s son also was bound hand and foot after he attempted to run away.
In her plea agreement, the former YouTuber also admitted to kicking her young son while wearing boots, holding his head under water, and “cutting off” his oxygen by placing her hands over his nose and mouth, BuzzFeed News said. She reportedly tried to convince her son that he was “evil” and “possessed,” and that he needed to repent and “willingly be obedient” in order to avoid the “necessary” punishments.
But years before Ruby Franke’s arrest, viewers of the now-defunct “8 Passengers” channels had expressed concerns about her children’s welfare. One of “8 Passengers” most controversial moments occurred in 2020 and involved something Chad said in a video. Chad, then 15, explained that he had his bedroom was taken away from him for seven months because he had played pranks on his younger brother.
“I was sleeping on a beanbag since October,” Chad said.
Kevin Franke later told Business Insider that Chad’s discussion about his punishment was part of his “story of redemption” that showed his “victory over the challenges that he’s faced over the last several years.”
In another vlog at the time, Ruby Franke casually revealed that she had refused to drop lunch at school for her then-6-year-old daughter after the little girl had forgotten it. She said the girl’s teacher was worried about her being hungry and wanted her mother to bring her some food.
“But I responded and said, ‘(my daughter) is responsible for making her own lunches in the morning, so the natural outcome is she is just going to be hungry,’” Ruby said in the video. “And hopefully nobody gives her food and nobody steps in and gives her lunch.”
For a while, Ruby Franke continued to defend her and her husband’s stern parenting style, as critics launched an online petition asking child protective services to investigate their family, reports said.
But she and her husband ultimately stopped posting videos on “8 Passengers.” They also began marriage counseling with Hildebrandt, who suggested they separate, People reported. Kevin Franke subsequently filed for divorced, moved out and stopped communicating with his family at Hildebrandt’s direction, People also reported. Following Ruby Franke’s arrest, her husband’s told Good Morning America that he had no role in his children’s abuse.
Meanwhile, Ruby Franke joined the parenting advice podcast that Hildebrandt produced as part of her “ConneXions” therapy business, People said. The two women sparked more backlash across social media by posting videos with their divisive thoughts on parenting, religion, sexuality, race and other social and political issues.
On Tuesday, Hildebrandt also was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Both women will serve their sentences in Utah State Prison.
At the hearing, Chad sat with his father, who was moved to tears by his ex-wife’s apology, the Daily Mail reported. Chad’s older sister, Shari, also was seated with them.
Shari, 20, also had been vocal in condemning their mother and the lifestyle she forced them to endure. Following Ruby Franke’s arrest, Shari posted several messages on Instagram, People reported. “Today has been a big day,” she wrote in one post, followed by: “Me and my family are so glad justice is being served. We’ve been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up.”
